KUALA LUMPUR, 1 July 2009: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Member of Parliament (MP) for Padang Serai, N Gobalakrishnan, received two SMS death threats early this morning.

Gobalakrishnan Gobalakrishnan, who is also PKR supreme council member, said the first SMS came in at 12.47am while he was asleep, while the second came in at 6.48am. The SMSes also contained explicit racist remarks and disparaging comments about PKR.

They were both from the same phone number.

Gobalakrishnan said the first SMS contained a threat to follow his official vehicle and then shoot him, and alluded that he could face the same fate as former Lunas state assemblyperson Joe Fernandez.

MIC’s Fernandez was gunned down mysteriously when he stopped at a traffic junction in Bukit Mertajam in November 2000. On 26 April 2008, the Coroner ordered the police to further investigate Fernandez‘s murder, which many view as politically motivated.

The following day, however, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said that barring any new leads or witnesses coming forward, the police would consider the case closed.

“I am worried about this intimidation, because Joe’s state assembly seat was Lunas, which is in my parliamentary constituency. We were also friends when I was still in MIC Youth,” Gobalakrishnan told a press conference in Parliament today.

He added that that was why he was taking the death threats seriously.

Gobalakrishnan said the second SMS warned him not to go to the police and reiterated the death threat.

Nevertheless, Gobalakrishnan said he lodged a police report at the Sentul police station at 11.55am today, expressing hope the police would take the threats seriously.

“Even if this is a prank SMS, the person shouldn’t have sent a message like this. I really took the threat seriously after receiving the second SMS,” he said.

Gobalakrishnan said this was the first death threat he has received.

“Maybe it’s because I talk a lot during public ceramah and so on. But I don’t think it warrants this [kind of threat],” he said.

“I was voted in with a big majority. If the home minister does not want another by-election on his hands at this time, he’d better take care of me,” Gobalakrishnan joked.

At a separate press conference later in Parliament, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said that he had met Gobalakrishnan today.

“I gave him my guarantee to look into this and to ensure his safety,” Hishammuddin said, adding that the police had the expertise to ensure that such threats could be thwarted.